UK coach getting paid too much

In the tough times we are living in and the economy the way it is, I don’t see how the University of Kentucky can pay a coach as much money as new basketball coach John Calipari will be receiving.

The athletic director says it is not about winning, but I beg to differ. If you can’t produce a winning team, you will not be there long. Then, after reading in the paper about the other benefits that he got, I think this deal is a joke. If that kind of money is available, why not lower the tuition rates?

Bill Marushi, Catlettsburg



Expect a black market for smokes

Let's face it, times are tough. With the federal excise tax increase just going into effect on smokers, it is a cold slap in the face.

A friend who teaches in prison was talking to a teen inmate who said he was glad excise taxes on cigarettes were going so sky high. When asked why, he replied. “It gives me one more thing I can sell on the street.”

Organized crime, street gangs and terrorists are not stupid; they know a good opportunity when the see it. Cigarette smuggling will explode, leading to even more of a misery index for the common citizen. The potential black market for reasonably priced cigarettes could greatly outpace the demand for drugs because there are many more smokers than drug users.

In the 1980s Canada placed an unreasonably high excise tax rate on cigarettes. Things got so bad that it was estimated that half of all cigarettes were bought on the black market. Canada learned its lesson, cut the tax rate and the problem corrected itself.

With the inexpensive price of cigarettes in Mexico, the southern border could become even bloodier with tobacco smuggling in the mix. I believe government has turned the gun on itself when it treats its own citizens this bad, especially in tough times.

With taxes on cigarettes now sky high, even in the lowest tax rate states, criminals have been given the keys to a gold mine. Look at what Mexico is dealing with now with the drug cartels. We may have just handed them the keys to our future.

Dave Pickrell, president, President, Smokers Fighting Discrimination, Inc., Katy, Texas



Billy Clark a man of countless stories

In the 1950s my dad, Jim Patrick, and his wife, Alice, became lifelong friends with Billy and Ruth Clark. Dad was a reporter for the Ashland Daily Independent, and Billy and his family visited in our home many times. We mourn the passing of this man of countless stories and tireless love of his beloved Kentucky.

We will always hold the Clark family in our hearts.

Julia Patrick Rissler, Lexington